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Allium sativum is commonly known as garlic. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive. The garlic plant's bulb is the most commonly used part of the plant. With the exception of the single clove types, the bulb is divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. The cloves are used for cloning, consumption or for medicinal purposes, and have a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking. The leaves and flowers on the head are also edible.

Use garlic as an antibiotic and antiseptic. The active principles of garlic are supposed to interact with the nucleic acids of the virus, thus limiting its proliferation. It is proven to be effective against the following micro-organisms:

Use garlic to prevent cancer. One of the areas in which garlic seems most effective is cancer prevention. According to numerous medical journals (American Chinese Medicine, Science, Journal of Urology) garlic can reduce even malignant tumours. Garlic raises the immune system's level of response in defending the body, particularly against certain types of cancers including breast, stomach, colon and skin cancers.

Use garlic to treat wounds. Because of its high allyl sulfide content, garlic is increasingly replacing antibiotics in veterinary medicine. Garlic, used in an infusion to clean wounds, is also used to treat cuts, burns and minor injuries.

Intestinal bacterial imbalance (alteration of microbial balance of the intestine) often caused by the use of antibiotics.

Fermentative dyspepsia, which cause flatulence in the colon.

Urinary infections (cystitis and pyelonephritis), often caused by Esterichia coli.

Diverse bronchial infections (acute and chronic bronchitis), because when the disulphur of allyl is liberated through the breath, it acts directly on the bronchial mucous membrane. It is also an expectorant and antiasthmatic.

It is also active against ascarides and oxyuridae (little white worms that provokes anal itching in children). The most frequent types of intestinal parasites.

Anti-diarrhea: In order to fight off the bacteria that are found in food and the unpleasant consequences that result from them, you need only to eat one or two cloves of garlic before a meal, or chopped raw garlic sprinkled over the food. Cooked garlic will not work in this instance.

Lowers blood cholesterol: Garlic has an effect on blood cholesterol levels, thanks to its allicin content. Allicin is formed when the amino acid alliin is converted into allicin by the alliinase enzyme when garlic is cut, chewed and ingested.

Hypoglycemic: Garlic is recommended to people with diabetes because of its hypoglycemic properties: it reduces blood sugar levels when eaten regularly. But be careful - the flip-side is that people with low blood sugar levels should avoid eating garlic regularly.

There are some adverse effects of Garlic, which may be harmful to human being in some cases.

Garlic is known for causing halitosis as well as causing sweat to have a pungent 'garlicky' smell which is caused by Allylmethylsulphide (AMS).

AMS is a gas which is absorbed into the blood during the metabolism of garlic; from the blood it travels to the lungs and from there to the mouth causing bad breath and skin where it is exuded through skin pores.

Some people suffer from allergies to garlic and other plants in the Allium family

It thins the blood this had caused very high quantities of garlic and garlic supplements to be linked with an increased risk of bleeding, particularly during pregnancy and after surgery and childbirth, although culinary quantities are safe for consumption.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 10 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 9,599 times.